| Summary: | Mirja Unge is a Swedish author who often writes about young people and the tough situations they face. She writes both plays and short-stories and is acclaimed for her dialogue. The aim of this essay is to examine Unge’s dialogue style and how potential face-threatening situations are portrayed. To reach my aim I pose questions regarding the conversational support in two of Unge’s literary works, the short story Det var igår bara and the play Mariella and compare the result. The dialogues analysed both tackle the sensitive subject of sexual assault, a topic that is potentially face-threatening. The analysis is based on the theoretical and methodical framework of conversation analysis. The conversational support is analysed through “keys” that unlock interesting points in the conversation. The keys in this essay are ‘topic generation’ and ‘topic shifts’. The results show that in the text with the most conversational support (the short story) the subject of assault is avoided and only appear in the characters thoughts. In the play on the other hand there is very little conversational support, but the character tells the whole story in a direct manner. This indicates that the situation in the short story is more face-threatening than in the play. However there are other aspects in the dialogue that makes the conversation difficult for the characters in both stories.
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